Anticipation

S. and I are excited for our family to arrive for Christmas. The house is clean the beds are ready and the tree is decorated. We are now in the years of not expecting to get to share every Christmas or any of the holidays with all of our children, we have to share them of course with our children's spouse’s families. In fact E.#1 and hubbie will be heading off to California later this week, so we will drive down to Colorado to have an exchange and brunch with them before they go. We now have grandchild number two on the way, so 2011 is shaping up to be a very memorable year of anticipation.

This morning we attended the annual children's Christmas program at our church. It never disappoints in bringing glee to our hearts. One can always count on the loud and enthusiastic but off key child, the ham who enjoys the limelight, the costume malfunctions, the child who runs offstage in a hurry to use the restroom and then comes running back, the ones who forget their lines and have to start again, and all the other unscripted moments that their parents/ grandparents dutifully capture on their video cameras. What fun, we wait all year for it.

Now our anticipation switches over to the arrival of family and celebrating the advent for its core meaning as the birth of our Savior bringing light into a world otherwise doomed to darkness and despair. Many of course still do not realize that they need a savior. I do a lot of reading on various science blogs and a high proportion of the most vocal writers are outspoken atheists. I have concluded that they haven’t got much of anything to offer besides to just find your own meaning in life and go for all the experiences you can. I have no problem with science itself as an enterprise and think it is thrilling to read about the advances in human understanding of the natural world and universe, but do not think it has much to offer as a foundation for living and coping with all that life entails.

On Sunday evenings for at least fifteen years we have joined a group who meets at church and spends an hour praying for the needs of people both within the congregation and out. Two of the couples are in their eighties and have weathered many of life’s storms including many sad things, a suicide of a beloved grandchild and the cancer death of an only child. They have endured physical ailments and cancers of their own as well and yet they are full of life, joy and service to others. What a tribute to their faith. Both couples have kept their marriages together for fifty- sixty years and are still devoted partners. This is my best answer to atheists, show me how you deal with the problems of life over a lifetime without faith. I doubt they could have any kind of victory like these dear ones whose faith has sustained them. The Savior is a gift to all who accept Him. He is not just the giver of eternal life He enriches this present life and enables us to bear the inevitable difficulties with grace and love.

Lou

A Good Site

In my travels around the internet I have encountered many sites good and bad and in-between, but there is one that I can recommend for sure. It is called Science Based Medicine or SBM and is written by a group that consists of MDs and researchers and writes about the latest scientific studies and issues that the lay public may be confused about. They have many “battles” with anti-vaccination and “alternative medicine” advocacy groups. I find them to be very helpful in sorting things out. The archives cover many topics. The topic for today December 9, 2010, deals with the accuracy of common measuring devices used in giving infants and young children meds such as Tylenol for fever.

When I attended PT school at the University of Kansas Medical Center it was drilled into us that we would not and should not utilize any modalaties or treatments on a patient that had not been shown to have a beneficial effect through scientific studies that could be replicated. We were encouraged to keep up with the scientific literature and to use only good standard practices as defined by the laws in each state. This distinguishes PT from some chiropractic practices that find “subluxations” in the spine and put them back in place etc. and from some eastern medical practices and new age “treatments.”

So I recommend that my family and friends check it out, especially if they hear about some new wonder medication or treatment and want to know the scoop. This includes hype about vitamin supplements and herbal and natural products.

Lou

PS Click on the name of the site to go there.

Some Glass Things

I was blessed to have two pairs of loving grandparents well into my young adult life. I still remember the shock when my Dad’s Dad died suddenly at the age of 86 from a cerebral hemorrhage. He had actually been out playing golf that morning before slumping over after finishing lunch at home with my grandmother. I had been to visit only weeks before and had taken the last photograph of him posing with my grandma outside their home in Kansas.

I loved all of my grandparents and always felt loved back by them even though we didn’t get to see them except on holidays and maybe for a few days during summer vacations. Every child should have grandparents who thinks she is wonderfully special and a grandpa who gives bear hugs that squeeze the life out of her for a second when arriving for each visit. I only once remember meeting my maternal great-grandmother (she had 12 children I believe) and lots of relatives and cousins at a family reunion picnic in a park when I was quite young. My other great-grandparents were not alive when I was born I guess. Going to my grandparent’s homes was always an adventure. They lived in the same town so we could visit both pairs by taking turns staying at each house. My older sister and I sometimes got to visit all by ourselves and stay for a week or so, we felt so special.

When I get out the holiday pieces I think of them and can see the lay outs of their homes and kitchens. The cute corner lot that one house sat on so that you could use the front or the side entry depending on where Dad parked. There was a school playground across the street with the old style metal swings and slides. Across town the other grandparents lived in a delightful, two story farmhouse with two porches a barn and a chicken coup originally, before they developed part of their farmland into a housing development and built a nice new one story home alongside all the other new homes.

I hope that our grandchild on the way will enjoy visits out to the ”wild west” to see S. and I and that we can demonstrate that unconditional love that we were the recipients of.

S. only got to know his maternal grandmother as the others had all died before he was born. His “Aunt Lucy”( she was actually his Dad’s cousin) lived with his parents in her own little apartment at their house in her final years and was quite a colorful character. I got to know her too after I married S. I have her pretty glass punch bowl today. I also have my paternal grandma’s glass relish dish and china and some of S.’s mom’s serving things too. There are two pressed glass bowls that I remember her serving cranberry salad and other foods in at the holidays. She also gave me a plain glass candy dish with a fluted edge that was her grandmother’s and a tiny ribbed glass set of cream and sugar servers that belonged to her mother. I got two small glass candy dishes and some lovely silver serving pieces from my Mom when she and my Dad downsized this year from a two story home on a big lot to a condo in the city. I treasure all of these things as I think of these loving relatives and their family legacy to us. The glass items are just silicon shapes but they have value to me in the memories they carry.

We hope to gather in two of our children, one son-in-law and his friend and maybe Steve’s sister for our Thanksgiving Day this week. We have much to be thankful for in those who have gone before us.

Lou

Hiking in the Mall

The snow season is upon us and the temperatures are below freezing most mornings, so my walking partners and I are back to hiking the mall before the stores open at ten a.m. I probably won’t have much to say about exhilarating hikes in the mountains for quite awhile, unless we go on a snow picnic or take up snow shoeing. That actually is something I have always wanted to try and do have friends who own snowshoes and go up to the same Vedauwoo area that we hike in the summer months. Those same hiking trails are also very popular with cross country skiers and the loud fume-belching snow mobiles that environmentalists love to hate.

So my walking partners and I go round and round at the mall, every lap takes about fifteen minutes but we talk about the everyday things going on in our families and time passes quickly. I suppose a treadmill would serve the same purpose but it is the talking that serves as a bit of therapy actually. It is good to be able to share your life with a friend.

If S. and I ever do get to go snowshoeing this winter I will write about it. Drive safely everyone, as we all know the ice can be deceiving on the roads. S. has co-workers who report sliding through intersections recently. We all need to adjust and be more cautious now, and check tires for good traction.

Lou

Hug a veteran today

We got a new flag this year, each star has been embroidered onto the blue background and each stripe is sewn on individually as well, we paid good money for it as I recall. We bid on it at a silent auction to benefit the Stride Learning Center for preschool children with developmental disabilities and S. made the final winning bid. This flag also has a certificate that it has flown over the U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C. on a certain date, but I couldn't find that information just now.

S. had an early men's group (the dead theologians society) to attend this morning and already had it on display on this snowy day when I opened the front door to get the newspaper at seven a.m. I am proud of him for having served his country in the Army (even though he was drafted) and of my son-in-law for having enlisted for six years in the Air Force.

To all the men and women who have served during wars and during peace times and sacrificed much so that we may live in a democratic society enjoying all our freedoms, thank you so much! Thanks just doesn’t seem like enough though. Hug a veteran today.

Lou